NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 Graphics Cards by EVGA and PNY

EVGA GTX 280 Hydro Copper 16

The EVGA GeForce GTX 280 that we are evaluating here today features the Hydro Copper 16 Waterblock on it and is factory overclocked right out of the box. The retail box looks simple from the outside, but inside things are anything but dull.

The back of the retail box lists the features of the GeForce GTX 280 as well as the included bundle items and the warranty terms. It also notes that the product comes with a free overclocking tool called ‘Precision’ that we will talk about later in this article.

With the box removed, we find the card and supporting bundle safely packed away in some foam. The copper block that makes up the Hydro Copper 16 is very heavy and is the heaviest GPU cooler that we have ever used.

With the bundle opened up we can see what EVGA GeForce GTX 280 Hydro Copper 16 comes with. EVGA included both the 3/8″ and 1/2″ straight high-flow type-G water barbs and some block off plates for those that won’t be running SLI. Two dual-link DVI to VGA adapters and a video adapter were also included. It seems that our prototype card was shipping with some things we were not supposed to get, as well as missing some others we should have received. We were missing an 8-pin PCIe adapter and the EVGA driver/software CD with EVGA Precision software.